Doon School Class XII (SC) boy Pulkit Agarwal has made history there with a dazzling array of seven Ivy League placement offers, as well as from eight other US colleges and universities, including Stanford, the University of Chicago, Georgetown, Duke, Wesleyan and Northwestern. On 31st March, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth all offered Pulkit placements when they announced their 2015 Regular Decision results. This year worldwide applications to US colleges and universities rose dramatically yet again, so Pulkit had to beat off stiff competition for the limited number of places available to international students. A number of the fifteen colleges have also offered him generous scholarships for his four years of study in the United States.

Pulkit, who comes from a medical professional family, aims to major in Economics and Political Science. Dr. Peter McLaughlin, Headmaster of The Doon School, said: “We are delighted for Pulkit that he has pulled off this astonishing feat given the hyper-competitiveness of the admissions process to the elite universities of the world. The fact that so many top-ranked colleges have identified his tremendous potential, as we did when we admitted him to Doon, is a tribute to Pulkit’s focus and determination to use his talents to the full. A thorough gentleman, he was always a pleasure for our teachers and our specialist careers department to work with. As well as his academic commitment, Pulkit played an active part in the wider life of the school; he represented Doon in world debating competitions, in international and all-India Model United Nations conferences, was a School Prefect with many leadership responsibilities and had a great passion for playing cricket for his boarding house.”

Pulkit now faces the unenviable task of having to choose one from amongst this constellation of stellar universities by 1st May, but the school careers department is guiding him in making this difficult call.